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Prepared Bread for Canapes
Canapes are made from stale white bread, cut in quarter-inch slices and then shaped with a cutter into circles or rings two and one-half or three inches in diameter or cut into squares, strips, triangles or other fancy shapes. These portions of bread are then either fried in deep fat and drained on absorbent paper or sauted in just enough butter or other fat to keep them from burning; or they may be toasted.
A base recipe rather than a finished dish: these are the bread foundations onto which spreads and garnishes go. The single thing that decides success is dryness, since damp bread absorbs fat and collapses under a moist topping.
- Why stale breadDay-old bread has lost enough moisture to cut cleanly at a quarter inch without tearing or compressing. A firm, close-grained sandwich loaf works; airy artisan bread with large holes will not hold a topping.
- Fat temperatureThe original gives no temperature for deep frying. Use 375F, which browns a quarter-inch round in roughly 30 to 45 seconds a side. Cooler fat soaks in; hotter fat colours the outside before the centre dries.
- The sauteed versionClarified butter is better than whole butter here, as the milk solids in whole butter scorch before the bread crisps. Work in batches and add fat between them, since the bread drinks up whatever is in the pan.
- Oven as a third routeThe recipe says only 'toasted' and specifies no method or temperature. A moderate oven, around 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, turned once, is one modern way to do several dozen at once. Brush lightly with butter or oil first if you want colour.
- Cutting economicallyA two-and-a-half or three-inch round from a standard slice leaves considerable waste. Squares, strips and triangles use the whole slice; save trimmings for crumbs.
- Yield and timingA large sandwich loaf gives roughly one round per slice, so about two dozen from rounds; cutting squares, strips or triangles uses the whole slice and yields considerably more. They can be made a day ahead and kept airtight at room temperature, then re-crisped briefly in a low oven. Do not top them until shortly before serving.
Canape is the French word for a couch, and the culinary sense is usually explained as the bread being the seat on which the garnish rests -- an explanation that is traditional rather than documented. The word appears in English cookery writing for these small savouries by the late nineteenth century. The recipe's three methods reflect a period when frying in deep fat and sauteing in butter were as ordinary in the home kitchen as toasting.